Archive By Section - State

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Top California regulators communicated often and enthusiastically with executives at Pacific Gas & Electric Co., even offering unsolicited advice on handling the media while they presided over a case to decide how much the utility should pay for a deadly explosion in a San Francisco Bay Area suburb, according to a trove of emails released Monday.

SHINGLE SPRINGS (AP) - A private drone trying to record footage of a Northern California wildfire nearly hindered efforts to attack the flames from the air, but firefighters made enough progress to allow some of the 1,200 people under evacuation orders to return home Monday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A thunderstorm formed so rapidly over a Southern California beach that experts said Monday it was impossible for anyone to predict a lightning strike would turn a day of carefree fun into one of terror.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Jerry Brown travels to Mexico for three days of meetings starting Monday and will discuss immigration in separate sit-downs with President Enrique Pena Nieto and Central American diplomatic and religious leaders.

PLYMOUTH (AP) - Firefighters in Northern California on Sunday battled a wildfire that has destroyed 10 homes and forced hundreds of evacuations in the Sierra Nevada foothills, while a fire near Yosemite National Park destroyed one home and grew significantly overnight.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - California teachers earned an average of about $85,000 per year in salary and benefits last year, while 100 superintendents made more than $250,000 each, according to data provided by hundreds of school districts statewide.